Well, England have the ODI series in the bag after a dramatic win over the Proteas at the Rose Bowl on the weekend. After a relatively comfortable win at Headingly in the first ODI, England were almost pushed to their limit in the second match of the series, with South Africa getting within touching distance of their chase of England’s 330-6 total.
South Africa needed just the seven runs off the final over of the match to tie up the series, but some brilliantly composed bowling from Mark Wood gave away just the four runs to give England the dramatic victory and the series. Now they round off the ODI series against South Africa, who are the top-ranked ODI side in the world on Monday and changes have been made to the squad.
England v South Africa Third ODI odds
South Africa 4/5, England even money
The hosts have called up Steven Finn, Tony Roland-Jones and Liam Dawson for the third one-day international against Southampton as Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes all get rested. There are injury concerns about Stokes ahead of the Champions Trophy, who picked up a knee problem in the first game against South Africa and was limited to just three overs bowled in the second.
This Lords clash is the final game before England start up their Champions Trophy challenge on Thursday when they take on Bangladesh. With their series victory over the Proteas on the board in the format, they will go to the Champions Trophy as 11/4 outright favourites at Ladbrokes for the title. But first things first, they are 21/20 underdogs for the Lord’s match against South Africa on Monday, and that’s reasonable given that they are likely to take things easy with the series in the bag.
England won’t want to risk injury, while on the other side of things, South Africa will be looking for a flourish which will see them regain a bit of confidence and form ahead of the Champions Trophy. Again you have the power trio of AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock all at 10/3 in the Ladbrokes Top South African Batsman market with Faf du Plessis at 4/1. England’s batting remains the same apart from Stoke, with Joe Root as 10/3 favourite to top score for them with Alex Hales and Jason Roy at 7/2. With England’s bowling department weakened a little bit though, there is a decent chance the the Proteas will perform.
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